Mashups

Is this term still troubling you? Does the word 'mashup' still conjure up images of inappropriate heads stuck on inappropriate bodies? Well think again. There are lots of different types of mashups and these are just a few examples.

This project by VJ Sustenance was part of Allsorts Online: the collecting sector, academia, the arts and the media in Adelaide last year. VJ Lynne Sanderson used the Australian Newtork for Art & Technology Collection to create a digital work inspired by and shown in the Mortlock Chamber of the State Library of South Australia.

Another exciting site for mashup artists is the ABC Beta site 'Pool'. 'Pool' is a participatory site where the public can upload, download and mashup their own content with that of the ABC to make interesting new work. It is a bit hard to describe but if you have a bit of a poke around on the site it will slowly start to make sense!

The other site that has interesting mashup projects is the Federal government site MashupAustralia. This site was set up to encourage people to make use of the datasets which government are currently putting on open access. Check out the Powerhouse's Flip Explorer on this page. I put 'dance' in as a search term and ended up with some lovely 1930s glass-plate negative images of Sydney ballrooms.

Some of the other mashups on this site include a collating of various datasets to create a map you can use interactively to find your nearest toilet, doctor or school so you can see that once the basic data is released people find all sorts of interesting ways of using it!

Caz